“I love the game,” said “Inconvenient Truth” director Davis Guggenheim, who played an early version with his son. “Climate change is the biggest crisis of our time, but there is a disconnect because it is not in front of us,” he added. “When you play ‘SimCity’ it is in your face; if you build a coal power plant you feel the consequences — smog in the city, water table getting dirty, and your people getting angry.”

It’s fitting that the new SimCity should force players to cope with climate change—real world mayors are some of the only elected officials who have been tackling the issue head on. But what I’d really like to see is an updated version of SimEarth. Nothing teaches you about complex ecological systems like having to deal with them yourself.